Rookie
by TheJabuticaba
Summary: Pre-GiB verse. The first time that Jay met Kay wasn't the night at the police station. It was many years ago, when Jay was only little Jaime, and Kay was still a rookie. Featuring a child-sized Jay and inexperienced Kay. Certifiably AU.


_**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Just the plot.**_

**Rookie**

If there was anything that seven year-old Jaime Darla Edwards III would say was drilled into her head ever since the day she first opened her eyes (not that she could actually remember _that_ far back) was to not talk to strangers. She had learned this lesson in a rather unorthodox way – through Wheezey the Clown.

Now, that was nightmare fodder. Jaime hadn't been able to look at clowns, let alone circuses, the same way ever since.

Of course, as far as drilled-into-brain-must-obey-instructions went, not touching random things on the ground close second. Jaime had unfortunately managed to break _nearly_ both of the golden rules, and it was just by walking home from the nearby public school.

After all, it wasn't really her fault that the blob with tentacles had chosen to chase her, even though she'd done nothing but tentatively poke it's only eye with a finger (at least, Jaime assumed it was an eye, because it certainly looked like one).

At first, Jaime wasn't even aware that it was there, just sitting in the alleyway, waiting for an unsuspecting victim to pass by. Jaime was that victim.

Like an anglerfish, the large blob of seemingly harmless jelly began to pulse with a soft light. Tilting her head curiously, Jaime made the first mistake of the day – taking notice of the blob.

Cautiously, she stepped forwards. The blob continued to glow, in an oddly hypnotic fashion. Jaime shook her head, as if she was trying to clear her head of water. Whatever it was that she wanted to do, it worked, as the blob no longer looked as appealing as it did five seconds ago.

Still, Jaime's curiosity had been piqued, and she wasn't the type of girl to step away from a curiosity.

And so Jaime stepped closer still. The blob glowed, almost in anticipation.

_Of what?_ Jaime shoved the thought away as she took another step forwards, and nudged the blob with the toe of her foot. This was her second mistake.

The blob lost all of its light.

Face set in a slightly unhappy frown – because really, was Jaime that much of a bad influence that it would stop glowing because she had touched it? – Jaime leaned closer, over the blob, and watched it for any distinguishing features.

It had none. As far as Jaime was concerned, it looked like one of those squishy sea creatures – _What are they called? Jellofish? Jellyfish?_

Now, Jaime wasn't stupid. She knew that jellyfish only lived in the sea (Aunt Rose said so) and the thing that was sitting in the alleyway was definitely not a jellyfish, unless jellyfish could be found out of the sea.

(Which they couldn't.)

So, Jaime decided that the thing in the alleyway was a Jellofish.

It was then that the newly named 'Jellofish' shifted, and suddenly, Jaime found herself looking at a large eye.

"Oooh." Jaime oohed in wonder.

In everyone's life, there is always one point where one does something incredibly stupid/brave. (The line blurred whenever one thought hard about it.)

This was Jaime's point in life. Deciding that it probably wouldn't hurt (and how very wrong she was), Jaime poked the eye spot on the pupil.

Although considering the force she put behind her finger, it could have been classified as a vicious stab as opposed to a gentle poke.

The 'Jellofish' wasn't happy. With a low growl, the eye disappeared, and Jaime found herself face-to-mouth with rows of sharp teeth.

Sharp teeth that Jaime was sure hadn't existed two milliseconds ago.

She did the only logical thing a seven year old would do.

She screamed at the top of her lungs.

#Pre-MIB#

It was his first day on the job.

Not that the rest of the world knew about it, and quite frankly, neither did his father.

Kevin Brown (and then promptly kicked himself for forgetting that he was supposed to be 'K' now) scanned the street, looking for anything out of the ordinary. So far, he hadn't seen anything. It was hardly surprising, considering that Gels (from the planet Gelata, according to A) were masters of stealth, and could remain hidden for as long as they wanted.

K's communicator trilled merrily, and the young man nearly had a heart attack. Heart still thumping too quickly for his liking, he picked up the call.

"See anything down your end, dear boy?" A, his mentor, asked just as sunnily as the communicator had chirped.

"I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary." K answered and wondered if A knew just how silly he felt, walking down the street in a suit that was slightly too baggy for him.

"Hm." The older man almost sounded amused, as if he knew that the gangly teen was not completely at ease. "Have you tried using the spectrometer?"

"Oh!" K nearly dropped the communicator in his rush to extract the spectrometer. "Spectrometer. Right."

A chuckled. "Happy hunting, son."

And that left K by himself again, this time armed with the odd device that beeped annoyingly every time K flicked it open. It felt like one big dream.

After all, it was only yesterday that he had only met the aliens called Baltians (something he had never heard of before) and been introduced to the sadly short-staffed organisation known as the Men In Black (once again, something he had never even knew that existed).

A high pitched scream of terror jolted K little trip down memory lane.

_That sounded awfully close._ Even as that thought popped up, K was already on the move. As the seventeen year old dove into the alleyway where the scream had originated from, he nearly tripped a small bundle of terrified-out-of-her-wits child.

He _did,_ however, trip over his own feet in his haste to avoid squishing the child into concrete, and instead, managed to fall to an undignified heap. However, the child did not have his gracefulness, and when she tried to stop, she only succeeded in falling forwards.

And so K found himself with a lapful of previously mentioned child, quite tangled on the ground, and the furious Gel (K could tell that the Gel wasn't happy by the way its teeth were bared) less than a metre away from the two of them.

Absurdly enough, K's first thought was that _A would be so pleased that I found the Gel.  
_His second thought was _I'm not armed._ (Except with a communicator, a spectrometer and his fists.)  
His final thought was _We're gonna die._

Then, he swung the girl off his lap, and twisted around in his best attempt to shield the girl from the oncoming gelatinous menace.

The Gel (or Jellofish, as Jaime preferred to call it) leapt up, propelled forwards by its tentacles, intent on sinking the razor sharp teeth into K's tense and unprotected back.

The razor sharp teeth never met their intended target. Instead, the Gel exploded mid flight, and was splattered on the walls of the alleyway and all over the rookie's back.

The young man opened his eyes hesitatingly, having not felt the sharp teeth, but a splatter of something wet and slimy and downright disgusting soak into his back and hair. He looked at the goo still dripping off the wall before looking up at the mouth of the alleyway. A was calmly putting his gun away as he stepped delicately of a puddle of former Gel.

"Thought I heard screaming." He began casually as a way of greeting.

K was about to snap back, in a last attempt at regaining some semblance of dignity, that he hadn't screamed like a girl, when he remembered the child he had (sort of) rescued from the Gel. Right now, the girl was struggling to free herself from his arms, which were still locked securely around her.

"She does need to breathe, you know." There was a trace of a smirk on A's face.

K turned bright red as he realised that in his panic, he had not mushed the girl against the concrete, but rather, nearly suffocated her by protecting her.

"You smell funny. Like leather." was the first thing the girl said upon re-emerging from the protective cocoon K had formed around her. (Kay knew she was talking about the LTD leather seats.) She wrinkled her nose, her hands gripping the front of his jacket tightly.

K rolled his eyes, although he couldn't hide a grin. "Glad to see you're fine."

Then, Jaime's eyes widened. "Aunt Rose said I'm not supposed to talk to strangers!"

Using every ounce of his will-power, he fought back the grin. "My name is Kev-" K stopped. "I mean, K." he amended quickly. "Now you know me."

Jaime took a moment to process this, before she frowned. "K? As in the alphabet? Or as in K-A-Y?" she spelled out his name.

K – newly christened Kay – shrugged. "Second one."

Jaime took one long searching look at Kay, and the MIB agent resisted the urge to shift under her gaze. Finally, Jaime nodded in satisfaction that the young man wasn't lying. Her eyes drifted to the splattered Gel and for a second, her hands shook as she remembered the seemingly harmless blob turning into a horrible thing with teeth.

"It had teeth." It wasn't a question.

"Yes, it did." K agreed wisely.

"Did- did it have an eye?"

K glanced at his mentor for confirmation. A mouthed "_gills"_ and "_needed to breathe"_ at K.

"It wasn't an eye – it was actually gills. It needed to breathe." The _and taste the air for unsuspecting prey_ remained unsaid.

"Oh." Was all Jaime said, bottom lip beginning to tremble as fear and hysteria kicked in.

Considering that Kevin Brown was an only child, and that Agent Kay didn't really have much experience with being a Man in Black, let alone experience with calming hysterical children, he was caught completely unaware when the little girl before him dissolved into noisy tears.

Looking helplessly at A, Kay was met with a shrug, and a gesture that clearly meant _you're on your own.  
_Kay shot a half-hearted glare at the older man. _Some help you are.  
_A smiled infuriatingly.

Jaime had in the meantime, hidden her face against Kay's chest again. Kay grimaced when he realised that the front of his shirt was becoming wet with tears. He might not have minded as much usually, but his back was drenched with Gel matter, and Kay didn't really want to go back to headquarters drenched with both alien and human liquids.

"Um, hey," Kay began awkwardly to Jaime, or rather, the top of her head, "I didn't quite catch your name earlier."  
A muffled voice responded thickly. "Jaime."

"Right. Jaime," Kay felt rather stupid as he tried to comfort her, "the Gel's gone now. It can't hurt you anymore."

At the mere mention of the Gel, the seven year old tensed up and burrowed against him even more. Kay sighed._ Right. Wrong thing to say._

_Lie._ A mouthed at Kay, having taken pity upon his apprentice.  
_That's so… immoral!_ Kay mimed back.

As Kay sought for an effective way to calm down young children without lying, he absentmindedly rubbed soothing circles on Jaime's back.

He was surprised when the tears stopped gradually, and he found two large, almost puppy-dog like, eyes looking up at him.

"Feeling better?" Kay asked, and secretly crossed his fingers in the hope that Jaime wouldn't start crying again.

"Uh-huh." Jaime sniffled, and Kay was relieved to see that she had a high level of hygiene for her age. Instead of wiping her nose on her sleeve as most children her age was prone to do, Jaime dug around her pockets until she came up with a tissue.

Jaime remained curled up against Kay's chest, and for a moment, he wondered if he would have to pry off the child with a crowbar. Not that he was prone to random acts of violence, even against snot-nosed and hysterical children.

Kay considered his options. He could simply stand up, and chances were, Jaime would slide off. Or he could go back to the crowbar idea-

Kay blinked out of his machinations when Jaime shifted slightly and wrapped her short arms as far as it would go around his torso.

"Thanks." An embarrassed and muffled voice emanated from Jaime.

"I, uh, you're welcome." Kay stuttered as the child let him go and slipped off his lap. When he looked up at A, Kay found that his mentor had donned his sunglasses, and had pulled an odd looking device from his jacket pocket.

"Kay, you might want to put your sunglasses on." A advised, and the device flashed as soon as Kay had his sunglasses on.

"What-" Kay began to ask, but A cut across him, addressing Jaime.

"You were simply going home from school today, and you did not see anything out of the ordinary."

Kay watched in amazement as Jaime nodded, slack-jawed and eyes blank. A gave Jaime a gentle nudge, and the girl left the alleyway.

"This," A pointed to the device with a flourish, "is a neuralyser. It isolates the electronic impulses in your brain, more specifically the ones for memory."

Kay wondered if he looked like a gaping fish by now. Then, "Will she get brain damage?"

A let out a laugh. "Course not."

"So, you supplied her with a new memory?" Kay asked as he got up from the ground, and began to dust himself off before remembering that the goo probably couldn't be dusted off. "It was really…"

"Boring?" A suggested. "It's easier to come up with boring ones."

Then Kay frowned. "Hey!" He demanded accusingly. "Why didn't you do this earlier, you know, before she burst into tears?"

A shrugged. "Consider it all part of the 'first day' experience."

Kay scowled as he shoved his hands into his pockets, ignoring the squelch as he did so. The scowl dropped off when A patted him on the back.

"Not bad for a rookie, though."

Almost against his will, a small grin appeared on Kay's face. He had to admit it – it was exciting, facing his first hostile alien, and even Jaime had been adorable, in a messy, teary way.

"If I ever have to train a rookie," Kay vowed, looking at his drenched suit, "I'll make sure we both get covered in goo. Otherwise it'd be a bit unfair." As he finished speaking, he flicked a small glob of Gel goo at A.

A ducked the projectile, and smirked. "I'll hold you to that."

#MIB#

_Thirteen Years Later_

"He needed to breathe." Kay explained as he unplugged the surveillance camera from its socket. There was no sense in leaving behind evidence that he had existed.

"I'm sorry, what?" Jaime Edwards of the NYPD looked at him curiously. She felt an odd sense of déjà vu. Where had she heard that phrase before? Faint memories of a sunny afternoon spent poking a blob – _Jellofish_ – bubbled to the surface of her mind. Jaime grimaced, massaging her temples. It was no doubt the product of a sleep deprived mind, as she was certain that had never happened. _Ugh. One too many night shifts, Edwards. You need to sleep._

"The eyelids-" Kay made a sideways pinching motion with his fingers, "they were gills. He was running out of air, and he needed to breathe."

"Okay…?" Jaime brushed off the earlier déjà vu. She was sure that if she met someone as immaculately dressed (yet possibly crazy) as the man before her, she was sure she would have remembered him.  
Right?

For Kay, it wasn't until he had been swallowed by the bug and then promptly blasted his way out again, drenching a previously dry Jay in bug goo, did he remember the promise he made to A years ago. A slightly bitter smile twisted Kay's lips as he remembered his old mentor.

"Don't tell me you find this amusing." Jay deadpanned, wiping away some of the goo from her shoulders.

Kay glanced at her, and suddenly, it clicked.

_Jaime._

_Jaime Darla Edwards. Raised by an Aunt Rose._ He remembered hearing both the child's voice ("_Aunt Rose said I'm not supposed to be talking to strangers!"_), and reading her file when he recruited her earlier (_Raised by her aunt. Parents dead._).

_Oh._

Later, Kay would blame his small epiphany for not noticing that Edgar the Bug was still alive.

#MIB#

"I'll never get the goo out of my hair."

"Sorry."

"Not really your fault, Doctor Weaver. Thanks for killing that bug, by the way."

"My pleasure."

**END**


End file.
